London
June 13. 1841
My Dear Constance
Pray send 2 or 3 copies of the enclosed portrait.<1> If the fixing liquid<2> is exhausted send them wrapped up & I will fix them here.
Tell Nicole<3> I don't want any more leaves and branches<4> done. I must make some criticisms on his performances which I wish you to mention. He presses the plants much too tight, so that the juice is squeezed out, & spoils the pictures.<5>
His copies of my originals are generally not half strong enough; the fault of being too strong would be much better as I then could lower them,<6> but these are nearly useless from their faintness. I am afraid the assistant will hardly answer to me to keep, as I see it will be difficult to give him enough to do during my absences from home.
London agrees with me very indifferently - The weather is improving, it has been wretched. Pray take care of yourselves and do not catch Midsummer colds-
Your affte
Henry
Notes:
1. Possibly this portrait was taken by Henry Collen (1800-1879), miniature painter, calotypist & spiritualist, London, with whom WHFT was working about this time. In August 1841 Collen was the first person to be licensed to practice calotype portraiture. [See Doc. No: 04281].
2. This may have been a reference to hypo, the 'washing out' liquid suggested by Sir John Herschel, which was variable in its composition and action. As long as the prints were kept in the dark and away from extreme heat, fixing could be delayed indefinitely.
3. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer.
4. Photograms of leaves and branches, made by placing the object directly on top of the sensitive paper and exposing it to sunlight.
5. For an example, flawed by plant juices to a beautiful effect, see 'Bryonia dioca - the English Wild Vine', Schaaf 2097, Larry J. Schaaf, The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 53.
6. Prints that were too dark retained much of their detail but it was hidden in the gloom - prints that were too light lacked any detail in the highlights that might have been retrieved. 'Lowering' meant bleaching an overly dark print. He used various methods for this, including exposure to bright sunshine, boiling water and leaving the print in the fixer for extended periods. Sometimes the results were surprisingly good and examples survive today in fine condition. The long-term implications of such treatments were little understood and of course in many cases they had a deleterious effect.